UK: Fascist march stopped in Dover
01 November 1998
Anti-fascists stopped a march by members of the fascist National Front (NF) at the port of Dover, Kent, in December. The NF had hoped to capitalise on hostility towards asylum-seekers that had been whipped-up by a racist campaign in the local press. Asylum-seekers, many of them Roma fleeing well documented persecution from racist skinheads, police and government agencies in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, began arriving at the port in the autumn of 1997. Most were immediately returned to France or Belgium. Some were allowed to make asylum claims, but many of these are now imprisoned in detention centres while their cases are considered. Those who remain in Dover have had to contend with an onslaught of abuse culminating in a series of racist attacks since the last NF march in February (see Statewatch Vol 7, no 6).
The NF was once the largest fascist organisation in the UK but, outmanoeuvred by anti-fascist opposition throughout the 1970s and 80s it became riven by internal feuds followed by the inevitable splits. The most recent parting of ways took place in 1995 when party leader, Ian Anderson, and his supporters left to form the National Democrats. A rump of NF loyalists in the West Midlands, under the leadership of John McAuley, rejected the cosmetic name change and form the remnants of the NF. Long since overtaken by the British National Party as the main organisation on the far-right, the media-driven campaign against asylum-seekers in Dover is seen by the NF as fertile ground to sow its seeds of hate and bolster its membership. A key player in the Dover campaign has been national activities organiser, Terry Blackham. Blackham's previous "activities" include a number of convictions for violent assault; he was released from prison in 1996 after being jailed for supplying guns and other weapons to loyalist death squads in Northern Ireland.
Under Blackham's stewardship about 40 NF supporters were bussed into Dover from the West Midlands to hold a march against asylum-seekers in November 1997. The march was abandoned when it was confronted by 200 anti-fascists notwithstanding efforts by the police to clear a path with dogs and officers in riot gear. The police operation ("Operation York") involved 140 officers and two helicopters and, Kent police informed local media, cost £35,000. While it protected the racists it offered little comfort to those asylum-seekers who fled Dover in fear of the march. They sought refuge in London but Westminster council forced them to return to Dover.
The NF mobilised again in February 1998, although this time fewer than 40 NF supporters were brought in from the West Midlands accompanied by police. An even heavier police operation saw officers in riot gear and dogs sent in to break up an anti-fascist demonstration. Snatch squads were deployed and 24 anti-fascists were arrested - all subsequently had their charges dropped by the police or dismissed in court. The NF held a token march and rally before being taken back to their coach to leave Dover under police escort.
The policing of the two NF marches raised a number of important public order issues including the scale and manner of police stop and search operations against anti-fascists; the scale and manner of police intelligence gathering (which included noting personal details and videoing of demonstrators) and the failure by the police to act over the NF's verbal and written (on leaflets and placards) incitements to racial hatred.
While mobilising to counter the latest NF march, which was scheduled for December 5, anti-fascists had to take into account the inevitable police operation to protect the fascists. Kent anti-fascists decided to lobby the bus company, Newbury Travel, which had brought the NF to Dover before. Their successful campaign - supported by seven trade-union branches in the Birmingham area who passed resolutions condemning Newbury Travel for transporting the fascists - got the NF's booking cancelle